Categories

19 – Nazareth Village

Day 7

Nazareth is the city where Jesus was raised. And in Nazareth today is an excellent Christian ministry that seeks to present Jesus’ message in Jesus’ setting. It’s called Nazareth Village, and is headed up by the Center for the Study of Early Christianity. If you ask me, it was one of the highlights of our trip.

As a small model of a 2,000 year old Galilean village, Nazareth Village plunges visitors into the past by showing houses, farms, livestock and daily life/chores from the time of Christ. Actors dress the part and your tour guide explains not only the sights and sounds that draw you into the experience, but also focuses on Scripture and amplifies the meaning of various passages based on the experience.

– – –

When preparing their mini-village, the builders uncovered a bona-fide vineyard, complete with winepress, watchtower, olive-crushing stones, irrigation system and ancient quarry, all dating back to the Roman period! How’s that for ‘luck’?

Here’s an example of terrace farming – a practice still in use today all over Israel. Because of all the hills and mountains in the region, almost all farming was “terrace farming”.To prepare a field, a farmer would build a series of retaining walls of stone in a stair-step fashion up a hill. Each terrace would only be a few feet wide – wide enough for a line of olive trees, grape vines or other crops. For each terrace, he would first lay a hard clay soil and then on top of that would add a layer of topsoil. Around the outer perimeter of the farm would be a path of hard soil or rocks so he could walk to his crop. It took a farmer about a full year to build and prepare a field.

The purpose of using two different layers of soil is for irrigation. When the top terrace was watered, the hard layer of clay soil (a few inches beneath the topsoil) in each terrace would prevent water from being wasted by penetrating too deep into the soil. Instead, water would build up and spill over the edge of the retaining wall and flow down the hillside to each terrace, thereby watering the entire farm.

So in , when Jesus told the parable of the sower planting seeds on all kinds of soil, it’s not that the farmer was careless with his seed – it’s that the terraced field he was planting, by design, had lots of stones, hard soil and soft soil. It dawned on me that when you think about it in that context, the parable of the sower was such a common experience that I’m certain Jesus’ audience failed to see any deeper meaning. Their collective response was probably “No duh! And… so what??” It’s no wonder His disciples pulled him aside and asked what the parable meant.

Considering that a small terrace farm would take over a year to prepare, no one in his right mind would buy one without examining it first. If it was built incorrectly or its walls were falling apart, the farmer would have a ton of work ahead of him just to get it ready to farm. So when the man receives his invitation to the banquet and replies that he has just bought a farm and must now go to examine it, Jesus’ audience knows immediately that the man is offering up a lame excuse to avoid the banquet.

How often do we offer up lame excuses to avoid God’s call?

Along with a terrace vineyard, a farmer would have a wine press and build a watchtower to watch over his crop.Here’s our guide demonstrating how the winepress would work: grapes were put in a large basin (often hewn out of solid rock, much like this authentic winepress). Grapes were crushed with the bare feet so as to avoid crushing the seeds. Broken seeds make wine taste bitter. The grape juice would flow down a small channel into a larger basin and then would be collected and stored to turn into wine.

The watchtower would sit high up on the hill and from this perch, the farmer could keep an eye on his crops and make sure people didn’t try to steal them. Jesus told a number of parables that related to a garden, sowing, watchtowers, etc.

Here’s a shepherd tending his flock. The flock of goats are on a higher terrace, just to the left and out of view of the camera.

Here’s a lady waiting for other ladies from the village to join her at a cistern. I don’t know why I never knew what a cistern was. I just figured it was a well. Not so!A cistern is a huge hole dug in the ground, usually near the bottom of a hill. And I do mean huge! Lines are made in the ground above on the hill such that rain water is collected into the cistern. Think of it as “reverse irrigation”. On the top of the cistern is a stone so large that it would require two people to move it. This was to prevent one person from stealing the water. (Unless you were Jacob and were so love-struck that you could move the stone by yourself! )

A dry cistern is large enough to be used to, oh.. say, imprison a pesky day-dreaming kid brother wearing a flashy coat.

I don’t know what the flower is on the left, but the branch on the right is an olive tree. You can see the small olives taking shape.There are TONS of olive trees everywhere you look in Israel.

A typical 1st century home.Looks a lot like something from the movie “The Nativity Story”.

Typical ‘living room’.Apparently your average home had two rooms: one living room and one bedroom. Everyone slept in the bedroom and ate, cooked, etc in the living room. The tour guide didn’t discuss bathrooms. Or maybe I was off taking a picture of something else when the topic came up.

The small piece of pottery in the center is a lamp. A typical 1st century lamp was usually no more than about 4″ in diameter. Not at all like the Aladdin-styled lamps you see in a Disney movie.

They not only made their own yarn from the sheep, but they made the dye and dyed it by hand too, just like they did 2,000 years ago. Snails produce the dark blues and purple colors. And various juices (from trees?) were used to produce the oranges and mustard-colored dye. Weird. Very cool!

Here’s a carpenter at work. The term “carpenter” was used to denote either a wood or stone worker.

An olive tree. I didn’t know that olive trees can grow for several hundred years.

When the olives had been harvested, they were placed in this stone trough. By pushing the arm around in a circle the olives were crushed by this millstone. I was surprised at how easily the thing turned.The olive pulp was gathered in bags and brought to the olive press.

Several bags of olive pulp (the dark cylinder in the center-left of this photo) were laid on top of each other and then placed under the pressing part of the olive press. This particular press had 3 large stones. The first stone (closest to the fulcrum of the press) was used to squeeze virgin olive oil from the bags. This was collected in a basin under the bags and a new basin was used to catch the oil when the second weight was added to the lever. A third basin was used to collect the oil when the third weight was added.The virgin olive oil from the one-weight press was used for anointing heads. The oil collected from two weights was used for cooking, and the oil collected when all three weights were applied was used for lamps. I never knew that.

Nazareth Village also features a synagogue. I’ve never been inside one.Our guide picked up a scroll from the jar on her left and read from the Gospel of Luke…

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. ( KJVA)

13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

“‘You will indeed hear but never understand,and you will indeed see but never perceive.15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,and with their ears they can barely hear,and their eyes they have closed,lest they should see with their eyesand hear with their earsand understand with their heartand turn, and I would heal them.’

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

18 “Hear then the parable of the sower:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables;I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.49 So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. (ESV)

10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. (ESV)

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captivesand recovering of sight to the blind,to set at liberty those who are oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (ESV)